"This trial has been hard... I feel like us yelling out of our lungs, it meant something." - Diana Gutierrez, aunt of David Gutierrez, expressing the emotional toll and relief following the verdict.
Sen. William Smith emphasizes the urgent need to clean up an overgrown cemetery in Prince George's County, which contains unmarked graves of Black children sent to a 19th-century juvenile facility. He believes acknowledging these deaths is crucial to addressing systemic issues within Maryland's juvenile justice system.
After one of her first visits to L.A. County's juvenile hall in Sylmar, Efty Sharony filed a report that said she witnessed conditions worse than anything she'd seen in "over 20 years of experience visiting every level of carceral facility in California."
"The Probation Department's chaos creates dangerous ripple effects on our youth's safety. Time and again, in report after report, we've seen neglect, mismanagement, and abuse, all while officials insist that change is coming."
Old Skool Cafe empowers at-risk youth by providing job training, life skills, and financial literacy, contrasting with harsher juvenile justice policies aimed at prosecuting more children as adults.